THE ART OF LETTING GO
by fairydust26
Summary: Steve proposes but Catherine knows better than to say yes. McDanno slash. Sadly, I don't own Hawaii 5-0.


Steve was nervous. He was about to ask Catherine to spend the rest of her life with him by saying yes to be his wife. He took her out to a very expensive restaurant and they were now taking a stroll on the beach, where he was planning on asking her to marry him.

"Cath," He called out to her gently. She turned to him and he took out the ring before kneeling on one knee, a hopeful look on his face. "Will you marry me, Catherine Rollins?"

In all honesty, she considered saying yes. Wanted to even. But she couldn't. For years, she's had her time with Steve, holding onto him selfishly. But she couldn't do it anymore. He wasn't hers, maybe he was once, but not anymore. Not really. And now it was time. It was time to let him go, to set him free so he could be with the one he needed to be with. The one he was destined to be with. Even if Steve didn't know it yet.

"No." She said firmly, hating the look of devastation that came over Steve's face.

"No?" He repeated dumbly, just to make sure as he got up.

She nodded. "No, I can't marry you, Steve. Not while you're in love with Danny."

"I'm not in love with Danny." He protested immediately, his voice a note higher than usual.

She gave him a small, soft and pained smile. "Yeah, you are." She smiled sadly. "You have been in love with each other for years. I saw it the second you two interacted with each other. At first I thought you'd get over it or one of you would give into your feelings. I waited for months for you to come to me and tell me that we can't be together anymore because you finally figured out that you love Danny. But the day never came, and one day I just stopped waiting for the other shoe to drop and be happy with you. I saw how your feelings deepened and strengthened, along with that unbreakable bond between you. But selfishly, I decided to stay quiet and just took what I could get."

Steve was quiet for a long time, staring out at the ocean. Watching how the waves crashed to shore and letting Catherine's words sink in. He opened his mouth a few times, but never knew what to say. Eventually he settled on a question,

"How do you know you're not wrong?" He asked, slowly coming to realised that maybe she isn't wrong.

"Because I can see it, Steve." She deadpanned. "Everyone, the whole island in fact, sees it. Expect for the two of you. You challenge each other, bringing out the very best and the very worst of each other. He makes you a better person and you do the same for him. You worry about each other, you take care of each other. What, you think he yells at you with that wildly waving hands for nothing? He does it because he loves you. And you, you testified in court when he battled Rachel for custody of Grace. You were there, every step of the way. Every court hearing you were there, even though you despise a courtroom. But you did it, because you love him."

"Why say something now?" He pressed, wondering how he missed it all.

She inhaled sharply, not expecting the question. "Because...because you wouldn't have been happy."

"How do you know that, huh? I have been happy with you for years." He challenged, finally looking her in the eyes again.

"You were happy, yes." She admitted, nodding her head. "But not like you are when you're around Danny. I don't know how to explain it, Steve. It's... it's like you're the earth and Danny is your personal sun, lighting up your life. Lighting up your world." She paused for a second, taking a deep breath. "Maybe we could have been happy, but it wouldn't have been true happiness. You wouldn't look at me with that sparkle in your eye, the way you do Danny. You wouldn't smile at me like you smile at Danny. You wouldn't love me like you love Danny. You wouldn't really be happy, because I'm not Danny."

Steve stared at her, his heart pounding, blood rushing in his ears and feeling like he couldn't breathe. He took deep breaths, gulping desperately for air that seemed to evade him as he realised that she was right. All this time, how did he miss it? He is a Navy Seal. He investigates crimes for a living and yet he missed something as important as this. He and Danny loves each other, but he wasted so much time. Six years wasted. Just because he couldn't, or wouldn't depending for your point of view, figure out what his blonde partner really meant to him..

"Cath, I..." He didn't know what to say to her. "I'm sorry."

There was a soft, knowing smile on her face. "I know. And I'm sorry too, for being selfish and not saying something sooner."

"I-I need to-" He spoke frantically, realisations hitting him more and more as the seconds ticked on. He needed to talk to Danny. Right now.

Catherine smiled softly once again. "Go. Go get your man, Steve."

*mcdanno*

Steve pounded on Danny's door, before using his key and letting himself in. He and Danny never bothered with knocking, so why would now be any different? "Steve? Why the hell did you break down my door? Are you crazy? Never mind, don't answer that, I already know that you are. You have a key for a reason, you know."

The blonde glared at him, but Steve just grinned at him. Finally looking at his best friend and he could appreciate the view of Danny in his sleeping pants with a white t-shirt and he didn't have to find a reason, other than just checking him out, as to why he let his eyes trail over Danny's body.

"So, how did the proposal go? Here to tell me the good news? It could have waited until Monday or at the very least, tomorrow." Danny grinned at him, but his eyes spoke the truth. The pain shining in those eyes was clear now and Steve wondered how he missed it. How was he so blind all this time?

"Steve?" Danny called out and it was then that the Seal realised that he had yet to say anything since arriving.

He racked his brain for the speech he prepared on the way over but found himself coming up with nothing. Looking at his partner, finally just letting himself feel, he was so overcome with love for Danny that he said just that. "I love you." He blurted.

"I love you too." Danny nodded, wondering where his best friend was going with this while also briefly wishing, just like every other time Steve said those three special and powerful words, that he meant it in a different way but knowing that he doesn't. "What's going on, Steve?"

"I asked Catherine to marry me." He admitted, getting his head on a little straighter. Danny's stomach hit the floor. Just because he knew what his friend did tonight, didn't mean that he likes it. "She said no. I asked her why and she said that she couldn't marry me while I'm in love with someone else. I didn't believe her at first, then she explained why and I realised she is right. I'm not in love with her. I'm in love with someone else."

Danny's heart shattered. He could deal with Steve loving Catherine, knowing that the former-Navy woman really loves Steve. But now he has to hear that not only did Catherine reject his marriage proposal but Steve is in love with someone else. His chest tightened and his heart clenched painfully. Even as all of his being screaming at him not to, he still asked, "And who might this person be?"

"You."

With three letters and only being one word, there was nothing special about the word 'you'. But that word just changed everything between Danny Williams and Steve McGarrett.

Danny's jaw dropped and he wondered if he was dreaming and would wake up in a few minutes to the cruel and harsh reality.

"I'm in love with you, Danny."

And just like that, the suffocating feeling disappeared from Danny's chest. The blonde, Jersey native kept staring at his partner with his jaw dropped and his eyes wide as awe and a little bit of disbelief spread in his mind.

The longer Danny stayed quiet, the more Steve began to think that Catherine had it all wrong and that the romantic feelings here was completely one sided. As the thought crossed Steve's mind, fear took him over as he realised that he has just possibly destroyed the best thing to ever happen to him as he put his heart in his hands and held it out, hoping that Danny would take it. But the blonde didn't. And Steve decided to leave.

"Okay then." He said with a nod, taking Danny's stunned silence as rejection and turned around to leave.

It was Steve turning around an walking away that finally snapped Danny out of his frozen stupor. He immediately followed the brunette and grabbed Steve's wrist as soon as he was in reach and spun him around. Before the tattooed man could say anything, Danny fisted his shirt with his free hand, pulled Steve down to his level before crashing his lips to the brunette's. Danny hoped that the kiss let Steve know that he was in no way, shape or form rejecting him.

Steve got the message and wasted no time in kissing the blonde back. Danny let go of Steve's wrist and t-shirt and brought his arms around the Seal's torso, once again fisting the material in his hands. Steve placed his hands on Danny's back, pulling the shorter man closer and closer until there was no place between them and neither of them knew where the one began or the other ended.

Passion, lust and want coursed through their veins, the flame between them burning brighter than ever before.

Eventually they had to separate as their lungs began burning for air. The two men gasped for air, ragged breaths escaping their lips as they tried to get oxygen into their lungs. Not wanting to be apart further than was needed, Danny and Steve rested their foreheads together, smiling goofily at each other.

"I love you too." A wave of happiness, content and pure bliss washed over Steve when Danny said those words. In the back of Steve's mind, he noted that he never felt like this with Catherine and silently promised himself to thank her for helping him see the light. See the truth.

"Does this make you my boyfriend, now?" Steve asked, goofy grin widening.

Danny snorted. "Boyfriend, really, Steven? What are you, 12?" Even with his sarcasm dripping from his every word, his heart thumped wildly at the thought of calling Steve his boyfriend.

"Well, does it?" The brunette asked again. Danny rolled his eyes, pulling his forehead away from Steve's with raised eyebrows.

"No, you persistent animal, it does not. You need to ask me. You can't just assume. What's the matter with you?" He ranted and Steve grinned that goofy grin of his, overjoyed that this new development in their relationship wouldn't affect their friendship or their banter.

"Daniel Williams, will you be my boyfriend?" The Seal asked immediately and the Jersey native rolled his eyes at the man's antics.

"Buy a guy dinner first, would you?" Danny mumbled but Steve heard him anyways with that Super Seal hearing of his.

"Okay, let's go. Where do you want to go?" Steve asked, pulling out of their embrace but keeping hold of Danny's hand, having no plan to let go of it anytime soon.

Danny sighed exasperatedly, running a hand over his face. "What am I going to do with you, you gigantic goof?"

"Love me?" Steve suggested innocently. The blonde smiled softly.

"I already do."

With those words, he pulled Steve down for yet another toe curling, soul rocking kiss with the knowledge that the best part of his life, is about to begin.

 **A/N:** okay, i hope you guys liked it. please leave a review with your thoughts. i like hearing them. 


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